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True or false: Was Dennis Leary invited to be in a R.E.M. music video after he ranted against them?

MTV 2 20 26

Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>Today In MTV: Friday, February 20, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Today In MTV: Friday, February 20, 2026

 True or false: Was Dennis Leary invited to be in a R.E.M. music video after he ranted against them?

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's Feature Reporter, Andrew Rossi.

Andrew Rossi

Around Wyoming

For many Wyoming communities, Sunday was the hottest day in recorded history.

The hottest in Worland’s recorded history was June 30, 1990, when it was 107 degrees. According to the National Weather Service office in Riverton, the high at Worland Municipal Airport on Sunday was 110.

The daytime high at Sheridan County Airport was 109 degrees. That broke the old record of 104 set in July 2021.

Buffalo's all-time high was also 104 degrees, set in July 2021. Its threshold was broken with a high of 105 degrees Sunday. 

At Lake Yellowstone in Yellowstone National Park, Sunday’s high was 88 degrees. The previous record was 86, set on July 19, 2021.

“It was certainly a hot day in Wyoming,” said meteorologist Trevor Lavoie with NWS Riverton.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Hot, Hot, Hot"}]

Lavoie said the source of Sunday’s high temperatures was “an anomalous area of high pressure” that settled over the Rocky Mountain Region this weekend. Wyoming was on the outside edge, so it didn’t get as hot as it could have.

Miles City, in eastern Montana, reached an all-time high of 115 degrees Sunday. That’s two degrees shy of the hottest temperatures ever recorded anywhere in Montana.

In Wyoming, Riverton also experienced an all-time record-high temperature.

“Riverton Airport hit 104, breaking the all-time record of 102 on June 18, 2006,” Lavoie said.

The temperature most notable to Lavoie was a tie for the all-time high in Lander.

“Lander tied its all-time record at 102, set on July 27, 1935,” he said.

That 102-degree tie stood out because Lander has one of the longest climate records in Wyoming, going back to 1896.

“Some records are longer, and there might be outliers in those records,” he said. “The fact that Lander tied its all-time record is, in and of itself, significant.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Called It, Don’t Read Into It"}]

Cowboy State Daily meteorologist Don Day wasn’t surprised by the records. He also discouraged people from trying to make broad assumptions from that data.

“I don't think you should try painting with a broad brush with this from a geographic standpoint,” he said. “Sunday was certainly extreme, there's no doubt about it, but breaking an all-time record on Sunday means it’s the hottest since they’ve been keeping records.”

Many Wyoming communities broke records for July 12, specifically, but not all-time highs. That was expected, according to Day.

“The southern part of the state was saved by upslope, so we didn't see any records,” he said. “Cheyenne didn't break a record. Laramie didn't break a record. Douglas did by one degree. This heat wave was biased toward the northern part of the state.”

Day went as far as to say it was “the most intense heat wave in the Northern Hemisphere this summer.” However, Wyoming got off comparatively easy.

“Ground zero was southeast Montana and the western halves of the Dakotas,” he said. “That’s why we didn’t see as many all-time records broken in Wyoming. It’s hard for a heat wave to break all-time high records, even in July, which is the hottest month of the year.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Barely Cooling It"}]

Monday wasn’t as warm as Sunday, but temperatures still hit triple digits in Greybull, Riverton and Shoshoni. Greybull might have set an all-time high Sunday, but it hadn’t been reported as of Monday afternoon.

The extended forecast isn’t providing much relief. Both Day and Lavoie said Tuesday is poised to be as hot as Monday, if not hotter, and the rest of the week will be only slightly cooler.

“We’re still looking at temperatures in the range of 100 to 105 degrees east of the Continental Divide on Tuesday,” Lavoie said. “The main factor that will be a bit of a hindrance to the heat is an increase in moisture and a rise in the dew points later on this week.”

Higher dew points mean more moisture in the atmosphere. That will decrease daytime temperatures across Wyoming, even if only by a few degrees.

There will be more relief as the “anomalous area of high pressure” starts to dissipate and shift eastward. When that happens, the void could be filled by cooler, wetter weather.

“Temperatures will spike up on Tuesday, but I don't think they'll go back to Sunday's levels,” Day said. “Once we get into mid to late week, we're going to start to see subtropical moisture get into northern Wyoming. That will produce some cloudiness and a few showers, which will be enough to stave off the worst of it.”

Of course, Wyoming’s weather is never a one-size-fits-all solution. While relief will slowly reach everyone, some will be waiting longer than others.

“I need to make it absolutely clear that the western side of the state is going to have the first taste of (monsoonal moisture) later this week and this weekend,” Day said. “It’s not going to get into Cheyenne, Laramie, Casper, Torrington, Gillette, and Sundance until next week.”

That means Wyomingites need to keep themselves well hydrated and out of the sun, if they can, during the heat of the day, he said. There’s another week, at least, of scorchingly high temperatures to endure.

Can it get worse? It’s possible, but Day said he believes it’s unlikely.

“I would say that it's going to be warmer than average for the rest of July and early August,” he said. “However, I don’t think there’s going to be another mechanism that could get as intense as or surpass what happened on Sunday.”

Worland temperature 7 13 26

<title>Northern Wyoming Bakes Under Highest Recorded Temps Ever, Awaits Relief | Cowboy State Daily</title>

For many northern Wyoming communities, Sunday was the hottest day in recorded history. Worland, Riverton, Sheridan and Buffalo set marks of between 105 and 110 degrees. Even Yellowstone hit a record.

Northern Wyoming Bakes Under Highest Recorded Temps Ever, Awaits Relief

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's general assignment reporter, Clair McFarland.

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Native American Tribes

[{"type":"text","text":"Tribe Tells Christian Church To Leave Reservation; Church Says No "}]

Northern Arapaho Tribal leaders told a Christian pastor who said "a pipe cannot hear your prayers" to leave their reservation. The pastor said she's staying, and won't apologize for preaching from the Bible. 

The Northern Arapaho Tribe’s executive branch has asked a Christian church to leave the reservation, the tribe’s chair said Friday.

In response, Foundations for Nations pastor Sarah Lucas told Cowboy State Daily she and her family aren’t planning to leave yet. They’re looking to legal solutions to stay – and hoping for a “revival” in the meantime, Lucas said.

The church, which has operated in Fremont County for nine years, sits within the borders of the Wind River Indian Reservation, but it’s on a parcel of private, not tribal, land.

The controversy erupted eight days ago when Lucas discouraged some tribal faith practices during a church service, just as the tribe finished its Sundance ceremonies. She had said, “a pipe cannot hear your prayers,” and “we know that Jesus is enough.”

. Northern Arapaho Tribal members were furious at what they cast as an insult to their “grandfather pipe” – a revered relic associated with the Arapaho creation story.

Protests unfolded at the Riverton City Hall and at the Foundations for Nations church site in the town of Arapahoe.

“I want a public apology from them,” said Northern Arapaho Business Council Chair Keenan Groesbeck during a 

 last Tuesday. He stood in front of a yellow tape line that stretched across the church’s driveway. 

[{"type":"text","text":"He said Lucas’ message was disrespectful."}]

“If they don’t want to apologize to us, they can leave,” said Groesbeck. 

Protestors joined in a traditional chant as honks and whoops sounded from passing vehicles.

Lucas went to a meeting with tribal leaders Friday. She said the council allowed its “Four Old Men” elder group to join the meeting, and leaders discussed the importance of the pipe relic and told her to leave.

[{"type":"text","text":"Lucas described the meeting as unprofessional."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Groesbeck took to Facebook about two hours later."}]

“Just so everyone knows. We told Foundations For Nations and Sarah Lucas they got to go. We ain’t putting up with their bullshit,” says Groesbeck’s Friday post. “

Groesbeck could not be reached for comment by publication. Nor could the other council members except for Sami Dresser, who declined to comment.

The tribe’s spokesman did not respond to a request for comment by publication.

Lucas told Cowboy State Daily she won’t apologize for preaching from the Bible, though she wishes to apologize “that it came off as an attack.”

“But I am a Christian preacher. I am a pastor and I preach the full counsel of God’s word,” she said. 

Lucas said she’s not against the sun dance altogether: she supports fasting and praying as a whole concept. But she understands the ceremony also involves “the worship of the pipe,” she said, adding that’s idolatry, and irreconcilable with the teaching that “Jesus is the only way.”

She pointed to the divisive messages the Bible attributes to Jesus, and the persecution and martyrdom his followers suffered.

“You could take everything from me but you can’t take my God,” said Lucas. “I’m willing to be martyred for the faith. I’ve counted the cost.”

She voiced mild surprise at the current outrage, saying community members have maligned Jesus and biblical teaching to her for years and she hasn’t retaliated. 

Regarding the tribal community, Lucas said she loves them and wants to maintain a forgiving posture. She referenced the high suicide, poverty, and addiction rates of the reservation. And she reiterated part of the same message that sparked this clash.

“Only Jesus can turn a life around, can deliver somebody, can set somebody free,” she said, adding that she’s called to preach that and is “more concerned with eternity, than I am about earthly hate.”

Lucas said people have been “twisting” her family’s message, casting their work as a grift and slandering them. She countered, noting that she did not take a salary for the church’s first several years, and that she’s now at about $25,000 annually. Her husband has worked two jobs in the past to pay their bills, she said.

She rebutted other rumors about harms to kids in the church’s sizable kids’ program, saying “All these lies are making the kids in our program feel unsafe. And that just hurts.”

Lucas indicated her family isn’t ready to leave the reservation. She said she wants to see people’s hearts changed.

“They might be mad for now, but I believe the supernatural power of God is going to turn this around,” said Lucas. “We don’t obey man. We obey God.”

She said she and her family are working with an attorney to remain on their parcel. They’re also weathering death threats, according to multiple screenshots Lucas sent Cowboy State Daily.

The outlet reached out to the FBI late Monday and will update this story when the agency comments.

Special church events are suspended for now, but church is scheduled for each Sunday as usual, Lucas said, adding that some kids still want to come to youth group, and some parents have been asking when the church will start youth group again.

The church runs a philanthropic food pantry, which closed early last week.  

[{"type":"text","text":"‘Why Are They Trying To Save Us?’"}]

Chris Friday, a tribal member who has helped to coordinate multiple protests, told Cowboy State Daily on Monday that the question of whether the Lucases and church must leave the reservation “Now (is) probably going to involve the courts.”

Friday helped organize another protest outside the church during its Sunday service, which occurred on schedule. He said church attendees were seen “carrying around guns.”

Lucas confirmed this in her own interview, as she referenced the death threats.

“There’s people protesting there all the time,” said Friday, regarding the church. “Just, what they said, man. It hurts us as Arapaho people. Makes us seem like we’re lower than them, that their way is better than ours.”

Friday defended the Arapaho prayer traditions, saying they go back generations, and non-tribal members have often tried to observe them without permission.

“Why are they interested in us so much? Why are they trying to save us? I don’t know. We don’t need any saving or anything; we didn’t ask for them,” said Friday. “They should just take the hint and leave – respectfully of course. Go back to where you were.”

The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, which Arapaho and other tribal leaders signed along with the U.S. government, says any “bad men among the whites” or other people who “commit any wrong upon the person or property of the Indians” shall be, “upon proof” handed to the federal government for arrest and punishment according to the nation’s laws. The offender shall “also reimburse the injured persons for the loss sustained,” the treaty says.

Friday referenced the clause as a potential avenue for barring the Lucases from the reservation.

[{"type":"text","text":"It’s uncertain whether the tribe would win such a case."}]

Some tribes invoked it against the federal government in litigation regarding pharmaceutical companies’ marketing and sale of opioid drugs to tribal members. That claim failed because the tribes “(failed) to allege a ‘wrong’ cognizable under the treaty,” says a Dec. 9, 2020, 

 of Federal Claims, and the opioid company hadn’t come onto the reservation to commit some wrong.

Friday noted in his interview that tribal land surrounds the Foundations for Nations private land parcel. He wondered aloud if the tribe could block the Lucases’ access, but said “I don’t know how that would really work. It would probably have to go through the court.”

[{"type":"text","text":"More From That Church Service"}]

Lucas’ full sermon was unavailable at least as of Monday. The one-minute, 38-second clip that went viral last week depicts Lucas paraphrasing from the Bible: “tear down the altars, tear down the idols.”

She spoke of “this nation” gathering in recent days, praying. The tribal members had just conducted their sun dance ceremony.

“They prayed to pipes and they prayed to the ancestors, believing this is the way for their freedom. To get free from addiction, for people to be healed … this is what this culture did this week,” said Lucas.

[{"type":"text","text":"She urged the congregation to pray."}]

“Because we know that Jesus is enough. He’s enough. It’s not Jesus-plus. It’s Jesus everything. He’s everything,” said Lucas.

She referenced people she described as tribal members who have become Christians.

“And they understand the price … when they say that publicly. The persecution that can come with them publicly,” Lucas said. “But they know that this is it. Jesus is the chain breaker. He’s the only one that we should be praying to. A pipe cannot hear your prayers.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Because Of This Dark History"}]

Christian Wassana, an enrolled Cheyenne Arapaho of Oklahoma who played Martin Kills Many on “Yellowstone," told Cowboy State Daily in a Wednesday interview that tribal members are still wrestling with troubling treatments by past, Christian-affiliated missions, such as the boarding schools that forbade the children from speaking their native languages.

[{"type":"text","text":"He had posted one of the original links to the video of Lucas preaching."}]

Indian boarding schools proliferated in the nation a century ago, many run by religious groups and funded with federal money.

Historical accounts tell of tribal leaders who wanted their kids to gain an education, a federal government that wanted to assimilate the kids and religious leaders who wanted to convert them.

Northern Arapaho sub-chief Sharp Nose sent his son, Little Chief, to the Carlisle boarding school in Pennsylvania in the late 1800s, hoping the boy could learn skills from the white man for surviving in the new culture.

Little Chief died in the school’s infirmary in 1883 and was buried on school grounds – a common occurrence for tribal children.

Jesuits came to the Wind River Indian Reservation and built St. Stephen’s Indian School in 1884.

Arapaho 7 13 26

<title>Arapaho Tribe Tells Christian Church To Leave Reservation; Church Says No | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Northern Arapaho Tribal leaders have told a Christian church to leave the reservation after the pastor preached "a pipe cannot hear your prayers.'  The pastor said she's staying, and won't apologize for preaching that "Jesus is the only way."

Arapaho Tribe Tells Christian Church To Leave Reservation; Church Says No

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Public Safety

For most Wyoming drivers, Interstate 25 is simply the highway connecting Cheyenne, Casper and Sheridan. But federal drug agents say it's also one of the primary corridors used by Mexican cartels to move fentanyl and other illegal drugs north through the Rocky Mountain region.

Speaking Monday in Cheyenne, U.S. Attorney Darin Smith and Drug Enforcement Administration officials said I-25 remains a key transportation route for cartel-connected trafficking organizations moving fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin through Wyoming. 

The announcement came as authorities revealed they've already seized nearly 6,000 fentanyl pills in Wyoming this year, surpassing the roughly 5,500 confiscated during all of 2025.

"Interstate 25 that runs through the state remains a key transportation route for cartel-led smuggling," DEA Rocky Mountain Field Division Special Agent in Charge David Olesky said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Supply Chain "}]

The federal warning echoes what Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation Commander Ryan Cox told Cowboy State Daily last month.

According to Cox, most illegal drugs sold in Wyoming don't originate in the Cowboy State. Instead, traffickers typically obtain them from distribution hubs in the Denver metropolitan area or, for much of southwest Wyoming, the Salt Lake City area, before transporting them back into Wyoming for sale.

Those supply routes help explain why drug trends emerging in neighboring states often make their way into Wyoming.

When the DEA announced in June that fentanyl-laced heroin had surfaced in Colorado and Utah, Cox said it was reasonable to expect the dangerous combination could eventually reach Wyoming because traffickers rely on those same established distribution networks.

Federal officials said nearly all illicit fentanyl entering the United States is manufactured by Mexico's Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels using precursor chemicals shipped from China before being trafficked north through established smuggling corridors that ultimately reach states like Wyoming.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Overdoses Down "}]

Even as law enforcement says more fentanyl is moving through Wyoming, overdose deaths are trending in the opposite direction.

According to federal officials, Wyoming recorded 54 opioid-involved fentanyl overdose deaths last year, down from 84 the previous year — a decline of about 35%.

Olesky said the encouraging trend doesn't mean residents can afford to let their guard down.

DEA laboratory testing now shows roughly three out of every 10 counterfeit pills seized nationwide contain a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl. While that's down from about seven out of every 10 pills in previous years, Olesky emphasized that a single counterfeit pill can still be fatal.

"My number one advice to all is: don't take a pill that doesn't come directly from a licensed pharmacy and based on a prescription from your doctor," he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'We're Coming For You'"}]

Smith said Operation Take Back America has strengthened cooperation among local, state and federal agencies to identify and prosecute drug traffickers operating in Wyoming.

Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak said deputies have made 186 drug-related arrests so far this year and credited partnerships with the DEA, Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation and local agencies for helping reduce property crime while connecting people struggling with addiction to treatment programs when they're willing to seek help.

Smith said whether traffickers are using Wyoming's highways, the mail or stash houses to distribute narcotics, federal prosecutors intend to use every available resource to hold them accountable.

"If you are trafficking narcotics here, or in this region for that matter, you'll be hunted down, you will be prosecuted, and you will serve your federal time," Smith said.

Kozak i 25 7 13 26

<title>Feds: I-25 Remains Wyoming's Main Artery For Cartel Drug Trafficking | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Federal officials said Monday fentanyl seizures in Wyoming have already exceeded last year's total, and said Interstate-25 remains a major drug-trafficking route for Mexican cartels.

Feds: I-25 Remains Wyoming's Main Artery For Cartel Drug Trafficking

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's business and tourism reporter, Renée Jean

Renée Jean

Energy

Agriculture

A massive data center and power generation complex is being proposed for 5,344 acres of ranchland northeast of Wheatland in Platte County near the Goshen County line, on property owned by the Lazy V Six Ranch.

The developer, a company called Site Layer 4, has filed an application to rezone the land from agricultural to industrial for what it describes as a $26 billion data center campus with co-located, utility-scale energy generation. The property is roughly 13 miles east of Interstate 25, in an area now used for grazing and agriculture.

Public hearings for the rezoning have been set for 7 p.m. Aug. 11 before the Platte County Planning and Zoning Commission and 10 a.m. Aug. 20 before the Platte County Commission. 

Site Layer 4 says in its application that the project would be built over multiple years and is designed to concentrate infrastructure in one unified location. 

Residents who live around the Goshen Hole Rim say that location also happens to include springs, mule deer habitat and big-sky views their families have cherished for generations. 

In its application, Site Layer 4 describes the Wheatland project as a long-term phased industrial campus that could scale with market demand. 

“Rezoning the proposed project area would allow well-planned large-scale industrial development in an appropriate location, and protect private landowner rights to use property for business and economic purposes in a manner reasonably balanced with regulatory oversight,” Site Layer 4 wrote in its application. 

Site Layer 4 also emphasizes that the project area represents less than half of 1% of the acres devoted to ranching and agriculture in Platte County.

“The project area has been selected specifically because it enables development of a unified, co-located facility, limiting potential sprawl of infrastructure and associated regional impacts,” the company added. “The project area has access to critical grid interconnection and other necessary existing infrastructure, is separated from residential uses and public spaces, and is visually buffered via topography from the community of Wheatland.”

Site Layer 4 further promises that the campus would include stormwater drainage and other environmental controls consistent with local, state and federal requirements, and would “prioritize environmental protection and effective mitigation of potential environmental impacts.”

That might sound good on paper, one of the project’s neighbors, George Gamblin conceded. But, he said, the project’s footprint falls within a dramatic and scenic portion of Goshen Hole where Platte County’s plateau drops hundreds of feet into canyons and draws before flattening out again across Goshen County.

“You can see clear into Nebraska from here,” Gamblin said. “You can look all the way across Goshen County.”

The area is a unique land feature for the area, a place where there are plants and animals that probably should not be there, and would not be there, but for a micro-climate that’s supporting what would typically need more water.

“I probably have a couple hundred acres of pine trees on my little property that are not even really supposed to be there,” He said. “I think it’s about a 12-plus precip zone, and they’re not even really supposed to be growing there. But some of these trees are probably 100-plus years old. And they contain a lot of birds and things like that, which typically don’t exist in this area out here in the plains.”

Gamblin’s family has been in the location for close to 90 years.

“I live on Goshen Hole Rim, which dissects Platte and Goshen counties,” he said. “And in places, from the rim to the bottom is anywhere from I don’t know, 400 to 600 feet that drop and what you have in those canyons, there’s a lot of varied habitat.”

Ponderosa pine, mountain mahogany and little riparian areas near the natural springs that come up in the bottom of the canyons lie within a half to three-quarters of a mile from the proposed rezoning.

“Some of the wildlife we have out there — it’s pretty amazing,” Gamblin said. “I had some professional birders come out and they got I believe over 40 species of birds in like seven or eight hours walking along the rim.”

There’s also a diversity of wildlife, including elk and mule deer, as well as occasional mountain lions — which Gamblin noted wasn’t mentioned in the wildlife portion of the application.

“There’s just any number of things that are very unique to Platte County, and especially this part of Platte County,” he said. “So I would like to see, at the very least, some kind of buffer for that kind of habitat.”

From his place, much of the proposed industrial zone would sit less than a mile and a half away, with the rezoning boundary coming to within about a half-mile of his property.

“That’s a huge tract of land that’s going to affect quite a few people,” he said. “I understand private property rights and I respect them, but that needs to work both ways in my mind. You need to respect the neighbors. There’s no reason where they can’t protect Goshen Hole Rim and still probably have everything they need down there on the lessee’s land.”

Gamblin added he’s not against the project at this point, but he does want to hear that appropriate steps will be taken to protect water, wildlife and the view.

“I would rather not see it go in at all,” he said. “But I do understand the private property issue and I understand people wanting to make more money to benefit from it, so I’m not opposed to it.”

Water and the view are the two biggest issues for Kathryn Stevens, who lives across the rim on the Chugwater Flats about 5 miles from the proposed industrial zone.

“We moved out here specifically for the wide-open space, for the landscape, for the beauty, because we wanted to be homesteaders,” she said. “We moved out here to appreciate the heritage of the land.”

The project has taken her and her family by surprise.

“I came from western Washington, where that land, which is really beautiful land, has been exploited,” she said. “And it’s so sad to see that. I just shudder to think of that happening here in an area that’s in many ways kind of untouched. I can look out my window and see for 40 miles, and I don’t know what would compel somebody to destroy that or put a huge building there. I just don’t understand that.”

The family, like their neighbors, all depend on domestic wells for water, so how much water the data center might use is her biggest concern. 

“Everybody knows we’re in a drought,” she said. “Farmers are plowing under their wheat because it’s too low to even harvest and a lot of farmers didn’t even plant this spring. We are an ag community. Water is life. If you don’t protect your water supply, you’re going to be real sorry.”

The flats have no access to municipal water, Stevens added. 

“The people who live here rely on their wells solely,” she said. “If our wells were to go dry or become intermittent, then we wouldn’t be able to live up here. Like, there’s no alternative, and you also wouldn’t be able to sell our land for anything.”

The developer’s documents say the data center will use a closed-loop system to minimize water use. Its annual water use would be comparable to that of 25 to 30 residential homes, which Platte County Economic Development Executive Director Josephine Young characterized as watering about 5 acres of hay a year.

Young said she’s fielded phone calls, emails and social media posts about the project, some of which are mixing concerns for Wheatland with stories from Georgia and Cheyenne. 

She hopes residents will zero in on the specifics of Site Layer 4’s project and judge the project on its merits. 

“I’m sure you’ve been to Wheatland plenty of times,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “There’s a lot of vacant buildings. I think something everyone can relate to is wanting a place where their kids can come back to. I have an 8-year-old little girl, and I know we don’t want to lose our small-town culture, but we also want to thrive.”

Contrary to what some social media posts have suggested, the data center would offer between 250 to 300 permanent positions, which she said is “massive” for Wheatland.

“I mean, that would be one of our largest employers,” she said. “So I guess, if I could plug one encouraging statement, it would be to judge each project on its own merit and application, versus what Google says or what a standalone data center might offer versus one with power generation, because that does change a lot.”

The project, Young added, is in its infancy right now, and its application to rezone is just the first step of many to come. The application also doesn’t mean the project is necessarily a “done deal” either.

If it does come about though, the community benefits have potential to be “transformational.”

“I think the sales tax revenue would, gosh, triple our county budget,” she said. “It would be an influx. And I keep trying to tell myself, like when Laramie River Station — Basin Electric — came in, there was a lot of contention around it and now it’s the lifeline of our county.”

Platte County Commissioner Ian Jolovich told Cowboy State Daily he’s keeping himself at arm's length from the project, at least until the rezoning formally lands before the commission.

“I make a point to let the planner do — to not insert ourselves into the deal and to let them make an unmolested decision at the planning and zoning commission level,” he said. “I do know what’s coming down the pipeline but, typically, that’s how I feel like you get to muddy, if you start digging around too early.”

Commissioners will get a “full staff briefing” in time for the meetings, and until then Jolovich plans to stay “agnostic” about the project, though he did add that he is typically “for private business.”

“There’s some good and bad in everything,” he said. “So just find the good and regulate or treat the bad.”

Water will be a big issue to Jolovich as well, he confirmed.

“I’m in agriculture so I have a different perspective on water and its uses and whatever else,” he said. “Basically, what we do is we turn water and sunlight into beef, and so, when there’s no water, you can’t make beef.”

The nearby Laramie River Station power plant already uses 18,000 gallons of water per minute, which dwarfs the data center’s projected use. 

“The water issue is almost a solved problem to me,” he said. “The biggest issue with water is what happens to the stuff that is wastewater … So I’m interested to see what wastewater treatment practices and force majeure practices are, if say, something goes wrong, act of God, and something gets out and gets into the aquifer or whatever.

A company called Site Layer 4 wants to rezone 5,344 acres of ranchland near Wheatland for a data center and power plant. The project, they say, adds 300 jobs and substantial tax revenue, but neighbors worry about water, wildlife and the viewshed.

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